Luca
Prince Luca The leader of a Knights’ Order and older brother Belton he seems to be at odds with him over and inheriting The position of duke The eldest son Lucas’s mother was the duke’s concubine. He was an extraordinary man with bravery and tactical genius who was currently serving as the leader of the Knights’ Order, and he had tremendous support from the Hartner Duchy’s army. The second son Belton’s mother was the duke’s legal wife. He was talented in dealing with domestic affairs, had the support of many civil officials and had connections with the central government. He was expected to make further developments in the Hartner Duchy if he were elected. Normally, it would be ideal if Belton succeeded the family of dukes as he was the son of the duke’s legal wife, while Lucas made use of his tactical genius in directing the army, whose presence had increased due to the Hartner Duchy becoming the frontline in the war against the Amid Empire. However, the way of thinking that each brother possessed did not match the other’s. Belton, the second son, believed that defenses against the Amid Empire ought to be strengthened while efforts were put into domestic affairs, prioritizing defending the duchy against the Empire’s weapons. That was why he had sent the troublesome refugees in the cities, who were the primary cause of the deteriorating public order, to remote regions under the pretense of cultivation, while in fact this was little more than a project set up to leave the refugees to fend for themselves. This had caused a sharp drop in the refugee numbers inside cities. He had sent the inhabitants of the cultivation villages that had failed to the slave-run mines to squeeze out the rest of the dwindling supply of metal while enacting policies to maintain forts and strengthen garrisons. Lucas, the eldest son, advocated that efforts should be placed in retaking the Sauron Duchy in the name of justice, piercing the Amid Empire’s shields and gaining glory for the Hartner Duchy. For this reason, he believed that the refugees, the primary cause of the deteriorating public order, should be conscripted and used as disposable, low-grade troops while sinking funds into the army’s budget to increase the number of regular soldiers, leaving the maintenance of public order to the guards and adventurers. The two plans were polar opposites of each other, and because each brother believed that their own plans were for the good of the Hartner Duchy, they were having a dispute. This had caused a division within their supporters and those who stood to benefit from the execution of either plan into separate factions. Despite being a plan to simply leave the refugees to fend for themselves, Belton’s cultivation project was going unexpectedly well. Only one of the seven cultivation villages had been abandoned, and though there were differences in prosperity between the other six villages, it seemed that they would last for at least five more years. If a cultivation project that had been designed to failed ended up succeeding, those of Belton’s faction would praise his ability in managing domestic affairs even more, advocating that he, who possessed the blood of the duke’s legal wife, would manage the duchy far better than his boorish older brother. This alone wouldn’t end the familial dispute, but for Lucas’s faction, it was best for Belton to have as few achievements and as many failures as possible. Summary He was born as the eldest son of Duke Hartner, but as he is the son of the duke’s concubine, he was second in line to succeed the family. He is a military man with sharp facial features, but at the end of volume 4, his troubles were only growing as he had to repair the castle, cover up what happened to the Red Wolves Knights’ Order and build a new fort, causing his hair to turn gray. He took incredible risks at the end of volume 4, so he feels a great sense of danger. Although he is now building a fort because of that sense of danger, all of his hair would turn white if he learned that this is meaningless against Vandalieu (who can easily ignore the fort by using Dungeon teleportation). If he meets Vandalieu, he might have claws stuck in his ears and his teeth made to rattle*. Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Humans Category:Aristocrats